Virtual Tour

20 Russian Orthodox chapel

Upon the end of the Cold War, public attention began to turn to the fate of Soviet prisoners, the third largest victim group of the Dachau concentration camp. The initiative to erect the memorial chapel “Resurrection of Our Lord” came from the leaderships of the Russian Orthodox Church in Germany and Russia together with the embassy of the Russian Federation. The architect Valentin Utkin created the design.

The octagonal wooden structure was prebuilt in Moscow and erected in Dachau by soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces in 1994. The metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, Nicolai Kutepov, dedicated the chapel on April 29 1995. It sits on a mound, partly comprised of earth from the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Located on the way to the memorial area of the crematorium on the left-hand side, after crossing the bridge over the Würm canal, is the Russian Orthodox chapel. An octagonal timber structure built in a simple cabin style, it stands in the middle of a quiet, tree-lined lawn. The steep tent shape recalls traditional Russian architecture, while a Russian cross is positioned on top of the shingle-clad roof hood. An icon of the Mother of God with a child is mounted over the entrance.

Russian Orthodox chapel, 2017 (Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site)